Playwright Jay Rayner has a play at London’s Royal Court Theatre, which has a long tradition of gritty tradition of working-class protest. But Rayner’s protest is different. “Why should I write something that is not germane to audiences’ lives? Theatre has always been an expensive middle-class pursuit. It is a precious, pretentious thing for precious, pretentious people. You drive in your expensive car to the theatre, get it valet parked, and then watch a play about poor people.”
Tag: 06.03.07
Undeleting the Classical Music Catalog
ArchivMusic is a real-world test of the Longtail phenomenon. The idea is to take old recordings that are no longer part of the CD catalog and make them available on demand. “Its Web site is now at the forefront of the new burn-on-demand phenomenon that is bolstering classical music sales along with the industry’s great strides in digital downloading. The company’s growing specialty is in reissuing discs that you cannot buy except in a used-CD shop, by burning them one at a time for consumers. It may seem like small change, but it adds up.”
Haitink’s Take On American Music Director Role
Bernard Haitink is principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony, and apparently the match is a good one. Still. “When I started at the Concertgebouw, the conductor was responsible for the music, and that was it; an artistic manager and a business manager took care of the rest. That has all changed. Nowadays the duties of a music director are far too much for one person. And the people who are available to fill those positions never want to give that much time to their orchestras. And the ‘sell-by’ date of a conductor is maybe a little bit shorter now.”
Tracey Emin Goes To Venice
“Tracey’s reputation for doing shows and hanging them is not good, but she’s been a dream to work with. What it shows is that she’s moved a long way away from the YBAs. She’s quite a lady actually!”
The State Of The Modern Musical (It’s Good)
“This year’s decent new crop of Broadway musicals reveals two major things about the state of the American musical. First, this newly burgeoning art form is healthier than at any time in at least the last 30 years. Second, its current aesthetic identity can only be described as delightfully eclectic.”
How Jeff Koons Works
“Several years ago, Koons developed a colour-by-numbers system, so that each of his 70 highly trained assistants could execute his super-realist canvases and sculptures as if they had been done by a single hand. One team identifies every area of a digital printout that requires its own colour – there are no gradations, and no room for interpretation; every distinct shade is identified, mapped out and given a number. Another team then mixes each of these colours, and passes them on to a third team: the painters. No paint leaves the colouring table before being approved by Koons.”
Why Is Darcy Bussell Retiring?
“What makes it so particularly bittersweet is that – as anyone who saw her recent, luminous appearance in Balanchine’s Apollo at the Opera House will testify – Bussell is dancing as well now as she has ever danced in her life, her line, musicality, athleticism and glamour still astonishing. And a great many people are terribly sad to see her go.”
Architects Who Live In Glass Houses…
Philip Johnson’s Glass House is an icon of his acheivement. Later this month it opens for visits by the public. “For Johnson, this 47-acre residence was more than just his home; it was a pastoral retreat filled with buildings he designed, including the transparent house that gives the property its name. And Johnson had another, more personal reason to keep guests at arm’s length: The estate was where he lived with David Whitney, whom he met in 1960.”
When Musicians Take To The Silver Screen
We’re about to see a new wave of movies about musicians. “In America, when you talk about films about musicians, we have reached a point where there’s almost a formula you plug in. Somebody who came from humble beginnings, who is innovative, who’s a visionary, who has exceptional talent. They succeed against the odds, then once they succeed, oftentimes the pathology and dysfunction from their childhood comes back and takes over their life.”
What A Tony Means For An Atlanta Theatre
“In recent years, even as the Alliance developed a national reputation as an incubator for new Broadway-bound musicals like “The Color Purple,” the company has struggled to retire a $1.5 million debt and revitalize a subscriber base that has been graying and shrinking. Supporters of the Alliance believe the theater is in a good position to take advantage of the honor.”